


Of Rings (and Other Things)

by schizoauthoress



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Romantic Fluff, author rubs zir queer little hands all over the franchise, obviously some Canon Divergence, the compulsory heterosexuality of the film franchise is really grating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 16:33:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6712654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schizoauthoress/pseuds/schizoauthoress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony finally works up the nerve to propose to Jim.  But it doesn't actually go according to plan...  (There's more than one part to this; I'll be bringing the ladies into focus later.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Rings (and Other Things)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [saphire_dance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saphire_dance/gifts), [daggerpen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daggerpen/gifts).



> post-Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (I have to catch up).

"Pepper, I-- I don't think I can do this!"

"You can, Tony. But... not without breathing. Can you... actually breathe for me?"

"I'm breathing!" Tony huffed, "I'm... okay, hang on."

Pepper bit down a sigh, rolling her eyes as the audio on the line became more distant. She could still hear Tony's shallow, panicky breaths, though fainter. Then he took a deliberately deep breath and let it out slowly. She pulled her own cell phone away from her ear as his exhale rattled too-loud over the line. He must have brought the cell phone back to his head.

"Breathe in. Count to five. Breathe out, counting to ten." She said soothingly. "Again."

They did that a few more times, before Tony spoke again, sounding more like his usual self.

"I can do this."

"You can do this, Tony," Pepper said agreeably. Anything to get him off the phone; as much as she liked him, Tony had a habit of completely wrecking any of Pepper's plans with the barest of effort on his part. (That was the most annoying thing about it, too -- that he never meant to ruin anything. It made it hard to sustain the anger at any one time.)

"I'm gonna go do it."

Pepper smirked and teased, "You better, before Rhodey thinks you've fallen in the toilet again."

"That was one... t-- four times, admittedly, but it was the nineties and I was drunk for most of that!"

"Tony." Pepper said sternly, in her CEO-of-Stark-Industries voice. "Hang up the phone, make sure you have the ring in your pocket, and get. Back. Out. There."

Yes ma'am, Boss Lady!" Tony quipped. Pepper couldn't help laughing briefly, sure that he wouldn't hear it as he hung up the phone.

"I am so sorry about that," Pepper said to the other woman in her office. "Best friend, personal crisis, he's on an important date with his college sweetheart..."

"Is he?" Natasha Romanova said, with the slightest of smiles on her face. "Well, maybe the Lieutenant Colonel will be a stabilizing influence for our Mechanic...?"

Pepper stared at Natasha for a full three seconds, and then dissolved into peals of laughter.

****

Jim finished dabbing his lips with his napkin as Tony approached, brushing away puff pastry crumbs. He raised an eyebrow when he saw that Tony had slipped on his red-lensed sunglasses again. Jim had thought the evening was going well -- the discussion mostly reminiscence about their time at M.I.T. with a little bit of Jim's current missions as Iron Patriot thrown in -- and Tony had seemed happy, if a little keyed up. Then sunglasses were a wall being thrown up, and Jim didn't know why.

Still, he smiled and joked, "Did you, ah, get lost on your way to the men's room, Tones?"

Tony slid into his seat and smirked. "Maybe you should have... come with me, Platypus."

Jim shot him an unimpressed look. Probably not his best work, given how Tony's smirk widened slightly. "This isn't one of those sleazy clubs you used to drag me to. We're not going to get up to anything in the bathroom of a five star restaurant in Los Angeles."

"Well, I'm paying enough for the privilege of eating their tiny plates of food to justify inventing my own perks as I please," Tony said, in his most obnoxiously 'Tony Stark, playboy' public persona tone. He also pushed out his lower lip into a pout that Jim did not want to admit was adorable.

But it was fucking adorable.

The second attempt at unimpressed must have come closer to the mark, because Tony subsided, his expression softening into a genuine smile. He reached out and patted Jim's hand lightly. 

Neither of them said anything. But Jim smiled back. This was... nice. Neither of them had to say a word, so comfortable after years of knowing each other, and for the first time in a long time, they could be affectionate in public without certain... policies hanging over Jim's head. 

The waitress came to take away the plates that had held the ridiculously tiny, artistic appetizers and replaced them with slightly larger and more ornamental-looking salads. She beamed at them and inquired, "How is everything?" 

"Excellent!" Tony proclaimed, whipping off his sunglasses and flashing her a smile that was just as practiced as hers. "Can we get another bottle of wine? My first choice wasn't nearly as fitting as I thought, Anizah." 

Tony lifted his hand from Jim's to accept the wine list again, and Anizah recommended something else. Jim let them chatter. He didn't care so much about the wine part of 'wine and conversation', after all.

Jim picked up his salad fork, watching Tony as he smiled and declared Anizah a 'vintnery prodigy', then ordered a bottle of her latest suggestion. She promised to return soon, and took the first bottle away when she left. Before Tony turned back to him, Jim dropped his fork to the carpet.

"Oops," he said quickly, "Let me get that." And without waiting for Tony to reply, Jim dove under the table.

"Hey," Tony said, and his laugh sounded strangely shaky. Maybe it was the fact that Jim was mostly hearing it through the table. "You're not going to take a page from The Breakfast Club, are you? Classic Brat Pack film, but I'm not sure I could make a convincing Molly Ringwald..."

Jim pulled a small black box out of his suit coat's inner pocket, snatched up the dropped fork, and popped back up in his chair. He set the fork down, lifted the lid of the box with his thumb, and looked up.

Tony was sitting there, rigid-backed in his chair, one hand held out and shaking. Another small black box was in his hand, lid flipped open to display its contents as well.

The box in Jim's hand contained an engagement ring of white gold -- a single half-carat round diamond was in the center setting, framed by two smaller rubies. And the box in Tony's hand... as well as Jim could tell through the shaking, it was a ring with a larger diamond and possibly blue stones.

"Well... I..." Tony started to say.

"Yes." Jim interrupted. "Obviously yes, you lummox."

Tony let out another short laugh, this one relieved. "I had a speech."

"You're terrible at speeches," Jim informed him, taking a moment to tug the ring free of the foam square that held it. Tony snatched his hands back and huffed.

"I am awesome at speeches."

"Mm-hm." Jim raised an eyebrow. "Did you have cards tonight?"

Tony didn't respond with words. Instead, he got to one knee. Jim was instantly aware that the entire restaurant had hushed. Someone's flash on their cell phone camera went off.

"Rhodey..." Tony began. He looked up at Jim with wide, wet eyes, and bit his lip, obviously getting choked up. He started again, steadier, "Jim. We've known each other since we were stupid kids. And you put up with me being a stupid adult, and you... you always believed I could be more than that. I know now that... you make me that person. You make me want to be what you see in me. Marry me?"

Rhodey took a deep breath. And he couldn't help asking, "Was that the speech?"

Tony snorted. "Sixty, sixty-five percent of it? I know I forgot something."

"Still yes, Tony," Jim said, reaching down to tug lightly at Tony's tie, pulling him up just a little bit before Jim leaned down to kiss him firmly.

Tony briefly kissed back with his usual enthusiasm, then pulled back and grabbed Jim's left hand. He slid the engagement ring into place, and of course it fit perfectly. He'd probably had JARVIS covertly take the measurement of Jim's left ring finger in preparation. (That was what Jim resorted to, after all. Tony never kept still.) Before Tony got up, Jim took him by the left hand as well, and put the engagement ring with the rubies on Tony's left ring finger.

They grinned at each other across the table once Tony had taken his seat again. A few nearby parties gave a light, congratulatory round of applause. Jim finally got a moment to see his engagement ring clearly -- it was also a band of white gold, with three tiny blue sapphires set flush with the band to frame the central diamond on each side. That diamond was at least a full carat in size, with a triangular front face despite its otherwise round shape. It resembled the latest, the last, iteration of Tony's...

"Arc reactor?" Jim asked quietly. 

"Because... you have my heart." Tony responded in a whisper.

Jim smiled warmly at Tony. "You _sappy_ old queen."

"Sometimes," Tony said, and he smiled so wide and so bright that Jim was reminded of the hopeful kid he'd been. The kid that Jim had first fallen in love with...

He wasn't sure who had reached for who first, this time, but they were holding hands again. And Jim knew that this time -- no matter what anyone else thought, no matter what happened in the future -- he wasn't going to let go.

"Rhodey, if you had a speech," Tony said, "I wanna hear it."

"Later," Jim replied. "You stole my thunder this time."

"Later in bed."

"Deal."


End file.
